Iterative design – a recipe for success

Iterative design is a cyclic process of continual improvement of a concept, design or product – a design cycle. Improvements are made and usability flaws eliminated, as a result of frequent user testing, feedback and evaluation, until a refined design is approved for development. I like to think of this iterative process as if you were fine tuning a recipe.

Once you know what you’re going to make and have decided the ingredients, follow the recipe to create a prototype(s). These can be simple hand-drawn scamps, interactive wireframes, or a semi-functioning product, but all deliberately created in draft format to divert attention from distracting visual details.

Then do the taste-test for ‘proof of concept’ with users and stakeholders, and either approve or reject the prototype. At any point you may drop back a step to adjust the quantities or cooking time for example, but once satisfied with the product it then moves to proper development or is published.

There are an increasing number of proprietary project management methods, like Agile, which use short iterative development cycles (sometimes called design sprints) to focus on continuous improvement of a product or service.

Benefits of iterative design

• Customer focused – it puts the user experience at the heart of the design process

• Fast – allows the team to create and test ideas quickly, known as rapid prototyping

• Highlights failure early – those that fail or don’t deliver enough value for customers can be abandoned before they reach development

• Time and cost efficient – it’s is an agile and cost-effective way of working as you can react quickly to things that work or fix the things that don’t work as you go along

• Controls risk – rapid prototyping means new ideas are tested to see if they have value before committing to development